GAJO Games

GAJO Happenings and Ramblings Blog

2012 - Number 1

War of the Ring: Pelannor Fields Mega Game

Over the holidays we had our annual Lord of the Rings mega game, and this year we ran a huge War of the Ring battle recreating the classic battle in the
Pelannor Fields.

First up was putting together a good table layout.

Our biggest challenge was to create a meaningful representation of the walls of Minas Tirith, optically in scale with the GW models for the Mumaks and
Winged Nazgul that would feature in the battle. Chris went to work on a design, and as you'll see from the photos the walls turned out quite nicely
and were quite impressive on the day.

Good View of the Opening Deployment

The Mordor force Viewed from the Walls of Minas Tirith

The next challenge (and a big challenge for a battle of this size!) was to sort out the figures.

Fortunately, we had access to a wide variety of figures provided by Jim Morgan (ace LOTR collector and terrain builder) and myself. We also had several
players who brought their own forces to supplement the base forces. As you'll see from the photos, we wound up doing a pretty good job of filling the
table with figures, although as always there is already much talk of forces we can add for next year - can we make it even bigger...

The game itself started as you would expect, with an overwhelming charge by the assembled forces of Rohan on the flank of Gothmog's forces arrayed against
Minas Tirith, while in the south The Witch King's forces pushed forward and prepared to meet the onslaught of Aragorn and the Army of the Dead from the
harbor area.

The Witch King "Encourages" His Forces Forward

Rohan Arrives

The advance of the Rohirrim was quite successful at first, while the Gondor war machines on the walls of Minas Tirith did their best to provide supporting
fire. Several large units of orcs were swept away, and others mauled severely by the onrushing horsemen. Meanwhile in the south, the forces of Gondor struck
back and a large sortied from Minas Tirith supported the arriving forces from the south, led by Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas as the "Three Hunters".

After a while the initial Rohan advance lost steam, fighting through a seemingly endless collection of orcs supported by trolls and wargs. Fortunately, a
large wave of Rohan foot followed them up, and began mopping up the orc units who had been worn down by the cavalry wave before them. A lareg, back and forth
melee ensued, with Gothmog's forces gradually being ground down, but with heavy losses to the Rohan units.

A Wall of Rohirrim

Companies of Archers Screen the Main Force of Orcs

On the southern flank there was also lots of action. The Army of the Dead in particular distinguished itself, and several units of Gondor knights and Knights
of Dol Amroth led by Prince Imrahil issued some stirring charges, all of which began eating into the forces of the Witch King. Just as the forces of good were
starting to feel optimistic, though, the evil reinforcements, led by 3 Mumaks, trundled onto the table from the eastern edge.

The end result of the game was a very bloody draw, with each side having sustained heavy casualties. The forces of Good had certainly hammered the evil force
opposing Minas Tirith, but the evil players went away content with having withstood the onslaught and given out a great deal of damage to their foes. Everyone
seemed to have a good time, and agreed that the rules were easy to pick up and worked very well.

Enjoy the photos, but as is often the case for a battle of this size, we have quite a few so we'll try to post some additional shots next week as well.